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President Rodrigo Duterte urged Congress to reserve the remaining funds under Bayanihan 2 to prepare the country for the possible entry of another COVID-19 variant.

As of March, the Commission on Audit said a total of P4.99 billion were unused as of the middle of 2021, news reports said.

Duterte made his call during the ceremonial signing of the Public Service Act and Presentation of Various Enacted Laws and his talk to the people on Monday.

He stressed the possibility that the new COVID-19 variant monitored may also enter the Philippines.

"Whether we like it or not, if this is true, it will again reach the shores of our country. So like what I have said, the Bayanihan funds that were not yet spent, and already returned to the treasury. I hope Congress will not use it," Duterte said during his public address aired on Tuesday morning.

"If they want to legislate it, so be it. But I hope they will not use it because that is in preparation for another surge of another variant. This monster continues to mutate and we do not know how this will end. But I guess it would be there or here for the longest time," he added.

During the signing of the Public Service Act and Presentation of Various Enacted Laws, Duterte noted that after his term ends, he will no longer care if the next administration will use the remaining Bayanihan funds for other purposes.

"We would never know when the next variant of COVID-19, as last reported, Israel is the birthplace of another mutant. We cannot be sure. After three months it's all up to you. Then it would not be my problem anymore," he said.

"The next president will just have to borrow. But what we already have let us not touch it, if there is another crisis, there’s another contamination that could be widespread and (the COVID-19 in) Israel, without being offensive, it will really reach here. As long as our tourism is active, it will really reach here," said Duterte.

"It’s not because you have the 200 billion (pesos) there you are not... But the next catastrophe to visit us, connected with COVID-19, whatever mutant there is, then we’ll have to work again and look for money to meet the exigency of the moment. That’s my take," he added.

In his previous radio interview, Senator Franklin Drilon recommended the realignment of unused funds of the government to suspend the excise tax on oil products to address the increasing oil prices.

Amid calls for the suspension of tax on oil products, the Department of Finance had said the government cannot suspend the excise tax because it is for the salary of government employees and projects like the Build, Build, Build program of the government. Robina Asido/DMS